News - Researchers release, by drone, tens of thousands of mosquitoes infected with deadly bacteria into wild

An international team of infectious disease researchers with the World Mosquito Program has developed a new way to control “vampire” insect populations. According to the weather, many mosquitoes infected with bacteria are released into the wild by drones. The research was published in the scientific journal Science Robotics (SciRobot). Mosquitoes carry many viruses that are dangerous to humans, including dengue fever, malaria, West Nile fever, and other diseases. One approach to fighting mosquitoes is as follows: releasing into the wild mosquitoes infected with bacteria that are deadly to the insects. However, this method is complicated, not very effective and can be dangerous. In the new study, the team refined the method by designing a container to transport the infected mosquitoes with the help of a drone. Specialists have created a container that can accommodate up to 160 thousand mosquitoes and is divided into small sections. The drone moves from place to place, releasing insects in batches of 150 units. The system was tested on the island of Fiji. The results showed that this method performed well compared to doing the same job manually. The distribution of infected mosquitoes has significantly reduced the number of insects that spread diseases dangerous to humans in selected areas.